WHO official urges new US envoy Huckabee to push Israel to allow aid into Gaza

Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, urges the new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to allow medicines and other aid into the Strip.

“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she says.

Yesterday, the head of 12 major aid organizations warned that the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is “facing total collapse” because of Israel’s blockade on aid supplies since the ceasefire and hostage deal collapsed.

Israel stresses there is enough food in Gaza for now, and has vowed to maintain its blockage on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory, saying it is the only way to force Hamas to release the 59 hostages still held there.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel has no intention of allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip until a “civilian” mechanism is established to bypass Hamas’s control of supplies.

The minister was forced to clarify his position after his initial statement on the matter sparked uproar in the coalition for asserting that Israel would resume aid to the enclave through private firms, without clarifying that there was no immediate plan to do this.